Thought Tweet #984 People, Processes, & Situations : When problems & stresses arrive, it is natural for People to want to exit the Situation. 

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

That's the legacy of our ancestors who, without fight-or-flight [and the other 2 options: 'freeze' or 'faint'], would not have brought us to where we are today.

Thought Tweet #983 Criticism is a contagious thing...it's the polar opposite of 'Pay It Forward'.

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

When we criticize others they tend to carry on the tradition by criticizing the people the encounter...they criticize the person in front of them in the Tim Horton's drive-thru or their children who are not taking homework quite seriously enough, etc., etc., ad nauseam.

All of us seem to be hard-wired to be critical of others...at least, the vast majority of us seem to possess and illustrate this human condition. Despite that fact, very few of us find value in receiving criticism. Very few of us indeed...

Regardless of how we deliver and receive criticism from others, most people - when you cut through their external facade: whether arrogant, or brave, or puzzled, or aggrieved most people - are quite critical of themselves. We should neither forget nor underestimate this aversion to criticism. Even people who are very tough on themselves don't like it when others treat them that way.

"It is very difficult to make really big, important, life-changing decisions because we are all susceptible to a formidable array of decision biases. There are more of them than we realize and they come to visit us more often than we'd like to admit."

Dan Ariely

'The Upside of Irrationality' (2010)

While, in relative terms, it is easy to make small, less-important decisions these decisions too are affected by our biases. And these small decisions too can be life changing.

Here's why/how they can be life changing:

The small changes happen bit by bit over time. We have a word for these changes. We call them "habits". Some of them are good; some of them are bad; all of them change our lives by influencing our thoughts & actions and by influencing how we are perceived by others. To the extent the small changes are founded on emotions they contain more lasting power. So, small changes - especially those small changes that grew out of an emotional base - have the ability to influence our thoughts & actions for long periods of time.

Big decisions & small decisions and big changes & small changes: all can contribute in long-lasting ways to develop a person's character. [In fact, when you stop to think about it, what else contributes to the building and maintenance of a person's character?]

Regardless, it is possible for people to make permanent & positive adjustments to their character.

Yes - easy to say, difficult to do...

One simply needs to commit to creating better habits then do the repetition of thought & action required to generate and solidify those better habits.